2009-02-24

Yes, CW. Did I hand-send the Morse? Oh, heavens, no. Used one of the four keyer memories in the 746Pro. Did I decode the DX's signal myself? Oh, heavens, no. Used UA9OV's CwGet.

Even if my code speed was better, and I have been practicing, there was no way I could have done the 30-40 wpm that K5D was doing. No way. Kudos to those that can, I'm just not one of them.

OTOH, I did think of an incentive today. I plan to try to get an ARRL Code Proficiency certificate. I figure if I can get to the 20-wpm level, I can buy myself a new set of paddles. We'll see if that pans out.

2009-02-22

The KP5 folks have been on the air for over a week. I hate to complain about DXpedition operations, but man, these guys have been hard to work. I finally got them on 17 SSB last Wednesday morning. Worked them again yesterday on 15 RTTY and last night on 80 SSB. But man, they're never strong. Well, they were pretty strong on 30 CW today, but they couldn't hear me (I was cheating with CwGet and the memories in the 746 :-).

VP6DX and TX5C were easy to work by comparison and Ducie, at least, is much further away. Lack of sunspots isn't helping, of course, but that should mean they'd be loud at night on 40 and 80. Well, not really. ZF2AM was loud on 3794 kHz the other night ... S9+10dB loud. And the Caymans aren't that much closer than Puerto Rico.

Anyway, I got them on 2 modes and three bands. They're there for several more days so we'll see if I can get them on CW.